Tag Archives: nature

hosts…

10 Friday Jan 2020

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recently I flew home from Ottawa… I spent the majority of the trip with my eyes glued to the window… it was like the entire sky was filled with a sunset for the entire flight… what a gift…

I had the most wonderful visit with my daughter and son-in-law… also had a fun time meeting and getting to know his mom…

it was quite a different Christmas for me… flew out on Christmas Day and celebrated New Year’s there as well… his mom was with us for a week and then I spent another six days with the kids…

had so much fun… the kids are wonderful hosts* and offer up all kinds of interesting things to do… I stayed in their AirBnB room which was very cozy…

while I was there we ate great home cooked meals, fed birds out of our hands, went to see butterflies, had afternoon tea, went to the Market and restaurants, spent a day at the spa, had a photo shoot, and two chocolate tastings…

and enjoyed great conversations…

now I am home and able to begin retirement living…

*AirBnB Cozy Blue Room Ottawa

spa…

09 Thursday Jan 2020

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for my last full day in Ottawa, we went to Nordik Spa in Chelsea… it is the parent of Thermea, where I was, just days ago…

but it is so much bigger… there are whole sections for quiet activities, as well as silent ones… every time I go they have added something new… this time it was Quonset hut saunas… the light reflecting on the ceiling was gorgeous…

we started in one of the warm glass beds and moved to warm pools, saunas, hot pools, had scrubs, and sat around fires in huts…

we drank tons of water and had a delicious lunch… we chatted with strangers, just ourselves, and we spent time in silence…

they don’t allow photos on site so these are a few I took: leaving home as the snow fell, the view as we stood in line to get our bracelets, and a picture my daughter took as we were leaving…

it was a wonderful relaxing and rejuvenating day, and a great way to end my visit…

we drove home in the dark, after watching the moon rise from various pools, and had a simple supper before all three of us watched a movie…

we didn’t want to go to bed because she had to work the next day and I would be packing and flying home;-(…

eventful…

29 Sunday Dec 2019

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what an eventful day yesterday was…

in the morning my daughter and I headed to Bulk Barn for bird seed and then on to Mer Bleue where it was way too slippery for a walk but we spent a lovely time feeding the birds from our hands… such fun;-)…

chickadees came and went from the surrounding trees… we saw blue jays, two types of woodpeckers, a nuthatch and maybe a partridge…

it was great fun… my daughter took the picture of the chickadee looking at me, lol…

then we picked up my son-in-law and his mom and went to the Canadian Museum of Nature where we saw exhibits about the arctic, the earth and Canadian birds… and we spent some quality time in the butterfly exhibit…

here are a few of my favourite photos…

birds AND butterflies…

finished the day off with a BeaverTail;-)…

those were for sharing, I only had half of one;-)…

Thermea…

20 Friday Dec 2019

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had the most delightful day with my grandson…

we had breakfast at one of our favourite places, ran a few errands and spent six hours at Thermea…

went in when it was light, and left in the dark…

today was the first time I’ve had a massage there and it was lovely… I like the Swedish, gentle, ones… my grandson had the deep tissue one, lol… I think he might be bruised, but he was happy…

then it was on to the thermal experience… even the Polar pool a few times… we attended an Aufguss ritual, spent time in nearly all the saunas, sat by the fire, enjoyed both pools, had supper and spent more time in the cool pool and hot tub…

just like his mother, aunt and grandfather, he can find people he’s met before in any place he goes;-)… and had a lengthy chat with them…

what a wonderful day it has been… on our way home he treated me to a Dairy Queen ice cream cone – one of my favourites ;-)…

surrounding…

20 Wednesday Nov 2019

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beauty is surrounding me… blessed…

first thing in the morning the orchids and hibiscus greet me… it is exciting to see which ones are getting ready to open… wondering how many might open at once…

at the office more orchids are blooming…

more are getting buds;-)…

lumps…

12 Tuesday Nov 2019

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was in the basement doing laundry when I heard scraping sounds…

excited to discover that my shoveler was in the backyard clearing snow from the deck…

I knew he was going to come again this year, but wasn’t sure of what it would cost so checked with him while he was here…

wrote cheques for the season and chatted with him for a few moments before he left..

this year I will text him as soon as the city clears the street… and produces the pile of snow at the end of the sidewalk… they are fairly good with clearing the driveway but do not even attempt the sidewalk… if you don’t clean it up quickly it turns into blocks of ice that are very difficult to remove…

my visitors use the sidewalk, so our plan is to get ahead of the lumps of packed snow if we can;-)…

very happy that he is thinking of ways to make the shovelling easier…

why…

15 Tuesday Oct 2019

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what a busy day yesterday… I’d prepped everything for our dinner ahead of time… good thing…

my three grandsons and a friend arrived at 1:30 and we were busy until around 7…

the younger two shovelled the driveway and the older two started working on getting the condo ready for the fish… they cleaned the tank, washed the gravel and rocks, spent time placing the rocks and then put in pond water and tap water…

all of them worked on catching the fish in the pond… that didn’t go so well as they only caught seven and one of the teeny babies… there must be another fifteen still out there, lol… hoping that the daddy will be able to collect the rest…

my beloved was always very patient in the catching process, although sometimes in the spring we might find one that hadn’t made it inside…

at about this point we discovered that the pump in the tank wasn’t working so the two older boys ran out to the Pet Store and were able to get a replacement…

then we finished getting supper ready and on the table… it was fun because I gave each of them a task to complete…

the middle grandson wanted to know why I did this every year because it was a lot of work, lol… he was stirring the gravy;-)…

supper was delicious and we had great conversation… they headed out shortly after we finished and I had a rest before starting on the disaster in the kitchen;-)… seems like the more helpers you have, the bigger the mess…

finished cleaning up this morning and had a very tasty plate of leftovers for my lunch…

wire…

14 Monday Oct 2019

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Saturday the sun came out for most of the afternoon… wonderful after two days of snow…

watched the hydro power wires from the lane to the house off and on all day…

early in the day I noticed that two of the cedar branches were hanging on the wire…

checked online and with family but couldn’t decide whether it was safe to go out and knock the snow off so the branches would get off the wire and there wouldn’t be any problem with the house’s power…

as the day went on the snow melted and first one, then the other lifted off the wire… made me very happy…

many cedar branches in the yard have been bent way over but it looks as if they will all recover… that is not the outcome for many, many trees in the city;-(…